Friday, September 29, 2017

Today I am excited to share my newest finish, the Jolly Bar Jazz quilt and isn't it just so super Jazzy!!! This quilt is a Shortcut Quilt from the Fat Quarter Shop and I absolutely love these patterns. They go together so super fast and always come together into a stunning quilt!!! And I am so glad I got to quilt along on this one, because it is certainly no exception to that Fun and Fast rule :)

For my quilt I decided to use the Modern Backgrounds Luster Jolly Bars by Zen Chic. I just love the bit of metallic in the prints that just pops, especially on the black :) And of course, the blacks and whites paired with the red solid background is perfect for another Alma Mater quilt. (If you have noticed I have made a lot of these lately, you are right , and this is the last one I needed for the year yippee for making my goal!!!)

I love how this design creates a fun dynamic design and I decided to alternate the black and white placement in the blocks to give it even more movement. Isn't it just so fun!!! The quilt finishes at 65" x 84" so it is a wonderful size to cuddle up in :)

When it came time to quilt it, I decided on an all over open center swirl in red. I tell you what, I just love quilting these Alma Mater quilts in red, I just love the way it stands out on the black and white and then blends away into the background. But I used the last of my red thread, so a trip to Superior Threads is in order, and soon ;)

This is a newer design motif for me and I am so just loving it. I quilted it in a slightly larger scale this time as well and I just love the wonderful texture it created across the quilt top. It is so pretty yet still super good for a snuggle.

And that is my Jolly Bar Jazz quilt!!! If you would like to make your own Jolly Bar Jazz quilt you can find the free pattern here and the accompanying You Tube Video right here that walks you through putting it together ;) And be sure to pop on over to the Jolly Jabber for lots more Jolly Bar Jazz finishes and inspiration!!! You are going to have so much fun making this quilt!!!

Thanks for popping in today :) I just love having this wonderful little corner of the internet to share my love of quilting with each of you and am so grateful for your visits each and every day!!!

Thursday, September 28, 2017

September has just about come and gone (and in quite a hurry I might add) which means another wonderful Sew Sampler box has arrived with all of it's quilty goodness :) This month's theme is Farmer's Market and talk about a bountiful harvest!!!

I am so excited for this gorgeous The Good Life Charm Pack. I always love Bonnie and Camille fabrics and this line is one of my favorites of theirs ;) Now the only hard part will be deciding if I want to make up the adorable table runner pattern sent along with or hoard it in my Charm stash, tee hee hee.

And I am so excited about this adorable tin!!! I absolutely love collecting little tins and this size is just perfect for holding a few notions and such. If I can ever convince myself to start hand stitching projects on the go (which I really am trying to get up the nerve to try) , it will be the perfect size!!!

And I thought these were the cutest little mini kits when Moda revealed them at Market and was so excited to see a Matchbox Quilt Kit tucked in this month's box!!! These little guys have everything you need to make the mini including batting and backing, all carefully kept in this adorable little matchbox size box. How fun is that!!! You know I am already planning on ordering the purple one to add to my mini wall :)

And of course, there is this month's Basket Block!!! I love how this block really pops with that black basket in the polka dots!!! And I love that background fabric with all of the states listed on it. So cool :) 6 blocks down and 6 to go!!!

And that is my September Sew Sampler Box . . . and wow, I am going to have some fun with it's contents!!!! And now, I get to wait until next month, good thing time flies by so fast when I am having so much fun in my quilting room ;)

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

** NOTE - This post is part of a series of posts for the Roundabout Quilt-Along. If you would like to join (and have a chance to win one of three $75.00 Gift Certificates from Fat Quarter Shop) you can find a list of the post links here :) Here is the schedule

So here we are, our first sewing assignment , so let's get right to it :) If you are just finding this QAL, it's never to late to join in the fun, we've just getting started!!!! THIS WEEKS ASSIGNMENT - FLYING GEESEI use the No-Waste method to make flying geese. The great thing about making flying geese this way is that, obviously, you don't waste any fabric and you never have to sew a triangle. Double bonus!! It also makes 4 flying geese out of each unit, so the flock grows quickly :) If you have never made them this way you are in for a treat. So, let's get to it :)We will start by gathering all of our squares to make the flying geese. These were the squares you marked FG and you will have 1 large squares from each of your Print Fabrics and small squares from your Background Fabric. I have listed the multiple sizes on the picture below just so you can double check that your two stacks each match one of the listed sizes ;)

Now you don't have to keep track of where these will be going in your block or anything, just know that you will be making 1 set, ie 4 Flying Geese Units for each of your blocks aka Print Fabrics. And now you are ready to start making your Flying Geese. To save time, I like to do each of these steps in assembly line fashion, however, the pictures will just show a Flying Geese units of one fabric.

With right sides together, lay two small backgrounds squares onto your large print square as shown. Using your ruler, draw a line diagonally from the top left corner to the bottom right corner shown on the right. Or, if you like, you can start by just drawing lines on the back of all your background squares as shown on the left. It takes a little bit of time but it is nice to have it done and it is a great time to watch a movie while drawing ;)

Now pin both sides of each square adjacent to that drawn line. Make sure to put the pins out far enough that your presser foot won't hit them as you sew on by :) Again, remember we are assembly line piecing these, so pin all of your units.

We will be stitching a 1/4" seam along BOTH sides of the drawn line (the black lines represent your stitching lines :) but to save time and thread, we will chain stitch these. And you will notice, you still have a pile of extra small background squares. No worries, we will get to those in a bit.

So to start, chain stitch the 1/4" seam on the left hand side of your drawn line. I just chain stitched through the entire pile and it went so fast :) For those who are new to this, Chain stitching is where you don't clip the thread between each unit sewn, just keep feeding units through the machine until you have stitched your entire pile.

Once the entire pile is stitched, you can now clip the threads between the squares. Then, go ahead and stitch the 1/4" seam on the right hand side (or other side) of the drawn line on all your units. You'll have some super long fabric snakes :) Clip the threads between the units and make a large pile ready for cutting.

Now, place your unit on your cutting mat and align your ruler along the drawn center line. Cut along the edge of the ruler creating 2 large triangles. I only ever cut these one at a time, as I worry that stacking them would shift and I might cut through my seams. Takes a second more, but worth it to play it safe ;)

Press the seams up towards the 2 sma.l background triangles. I find it easiest to press these from the front, but you can press from whichever side you prefer. And you are half way there!!! Now to use up those remaining small background squares.

And it's just like starting over. We repeat all the same steps, it's just smaller and more units. Take the small background squares and align them on your stitched units as shown with right sides together. Once again, draw a diagonal line on the wrong side of the small background squares from corner to corner. (unless you did all of the drawing lines at the start, then you can just lay them in place :)

Now pin each square far enough to leave room for the presser foot, then once again we are going to be stitching a 1/4" seam along BOTH sides of the drawn diagonal line.

And again, we will be chain stitching to save time and thread. So chain stitch along the left hand side of the drawn line on all your units, clip your threads, and then chain stitch along the right side of the drawn line on all your units, and then clip your threads one last time :)

And just like before, place your units on your cutting mat, and using your ruler aligned along the drawn line to cut your unit in half . So now what started as 1 large squares, is 4 units. And that is where your 4 flying geese come from.

Press your seams up towards the background square to match the other seam. You can press from the front or the back, whichever your prefer. Lastly, trim off the little dog ear corners at either side and the top of your unit. Note, Just trim the dog ears, don't trim the tops to where the point is, you will need that 1/4" overlap for your seam allowance.

And you are done!!! Perfectly precise flying geese blocks without throwing away any scraps and without sewing a single triangle. Fabulous!!

For those of you that are new to this method of No Waste Flying Geese, I wrote a previous tutorial on No Waste Flying Geese that also goes over the math of making them so you can make any size Flying Geese you like. Thought you might like it :)

And that's it!! Here is my Flock of geese all ready to fly away :) In total, you should have however many number of blocks you are making, times 4 geese. So for me, 25 blocks equals 100 total geese :) So now it's your turn to make up a gaggle of Flying Geese!!! And once you are finished be sure to link up below to enter to win the weekly prize :)

This weeks prize is a collection of Matilda Fat Quarters brand new from Ella Blue by Emma Jean Jansen!!! Isn't this line just fantastic!!! So fun!!! Someone is going to have a great time playing with these happy prints :)

So what do you have to do for a chance to win these beautiful fabrics? Simple . . . Just link up your Flock of Flying Geese at the end of this post :) You can link to a blog post or a flickr picture, or whatever. Just make sure to link up by the early morning of October 11th as I will be announcing a winner in next quilt-a-long post :)

If you don't get your Flying Geese done by next week you can still link it up :) (just not in time for the prize :) The linky will remain open until the end of the Quilt-A-Long. So if your out of town, or just had a busy week, no worries!!! Just link up when you can :)

And Don't forget to add your flock of flying geese to the Happy Quilting Quilt-A-Long Flickr group and to post it on social media with using #roundaboutquiltalong. I am so excited to see all of your flocks of geese ;)

So let's get sewing!!! Yippee for getting all the cutting behind us and moving on to sewing!!! Oh, and if you have questions, don't hesitate to email me at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com. Have a Happy Quilting Day!!

Today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is being sponsored by Lou Lou's Fabric Shop . Did you know that Jamie makes a new Lou Lou Bundle every Tuesday!!! Along with hosting the giveaway, Jamie is also offering all Happy Quilting readers a special discount of 20% offyour purchasewith the code happyquilting good until Sunday!!! (Excludes pre-orders and sale products) Oh, so much fun shopping!!!

Today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is for some shopping goodness!! Lou Lou's Fabric Shop is offering one lucky reader a $25.00 Gift Certificate perfect to use on anything in the store, including the awesome Lou Lou Bundle!! Just perfect!!!!

You have two entry chances, the second being optional, and please leave a separate comment for each. All Entries are welcome, including International Entries. Please just be sure to leave an email address if you are a no-reply blogger ;)

ENTRY 1 - Simply leave a comment that tells me about something that made you smile today ;) ENTRY 2 - Lets show Lou Lou's Fabric Shop some Love!!!! You can follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram. Or you can follow their blog or visit The Shop and then share a favorite item ;) Just be sure to leave a comment of how you showed your Lou Lou's Fabric Shop Love!!!

And that's it ;) The giveaway will be open until next Tuesday, October 3rd when I will announce a winner at the beginning of next weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Post :)

Monday, September 25, 2017

Before I get into today's post, I want to say a huge Thank You to all of the kind words you all sent on my See Squared quilt I posted last Friday!!! I just can't say how much all of your sweet comments mean to me. They so made my day and just left me smiling ear to ear over this quilt. I found out over the weekend that See Squared was not a finalist in the Challenge, but like I said before, I am so okay with that, and am just so happy with the finish and again, am so grateful for all your sweet words about it :)

So onto the weekend!!! I spent a good part of this weekend, quilting and then quilting some more!!! Remember those fun metallic pops from Zen Chic's Modern Luster Background I shared back here, well, that quilt top got finished up and was the first to go on the Long Arm this weekend :) I opted for some fun open center swirls like I did on this quilt. This is the second time I used this twist on the swirl and I am just loving it!!! And now all I have to do is get the binding on this quilt and I will be sharing the finish this Friday!!!

Next, the Joel Dewberry Florabelle quilt went on the Long Arm. I was just so happy with how the blocks from here went together in such a pretty quilt top that I decided to do some of my favorite feathered swirls for the quilting which I just thought would add to the beautiful prints!!! These are always fun to quilt and I love the wonderful movement they give the quilt :) Again, time to bind this one and I will be sharing it at the first of October and it is going to come with a Tutorial as well!!!

And finally, I squeaked in one last quilt ;) Remember my Baby Petal Pop from National Sew a Jelly Roll day . . . It's all quilted and I am so super excited!!! I kept the quilting pretty small on this one and am just so loving all of the wonderful texture it gives the background :) I used all of my favorites to fill in the background and then I even tried some feathers (which still make me a little nervous) in the Petals. Eeekk, so fun, I really need to get this one bound fast because I can't wait to share it all finished ;)

So ya, it was a ton of quilting this weekend and the funny thing is . . . that was only half of the quilt tops that I was hoping to get done. (Ya, it was probably a little unrealistic to think I could quilt 6 tops in a weekend ;) I still have my second National Jelly Roll Day quilt top, the Jelly Roll Slice to quilt up. I think I want to quilt an all over curl, but haven't for sure decided on that yet ;)

Friday, September 22, 2017

So remember when I shared the (extremely late) start to my Bella Challenge Quilt over here . . . Well today I am so super excited to share my finished Bella Challenge Quilt with all of its tiny piecing goodness. It's called See Squared and I just love it!!!! Oh, and since it happens to be Bloggers Quilt Festival as well, and I haven't missed a BQF in years, I am sharing it over there too ;)

See Squared was such a wonderfully fun quilt to make!!! Everyone working on the challenge was given the parameters of using the same 12 colors of Bella Solids to create their quilt from. I was immediately reminded or Legos and Rubik's cubes from my childhood when I saw these colors and set out to create something that was inspired by both. The idea evolved into squares made of squares creating a fun, individual, pix-elated look for each of the 45 squares in to quilt top.

To achieve this look in a super speedy kind of way, since I waited so long to start my quilt, I opted for some serious strip piecing. I cut my fat quarters into strips ranging from 1" to 2 1/2" varying the sizes by 1/4" and then sewed them up into groups of similar sizes.

Then, once they were all pressed, I sub-cut them into small strips the same width as their unfinished strip. So ya, lots and lots of strips of tiny squares.

Then I sewed each of the sub-cut small strips into a super long strip ready to start piecing the blocks with. I just loved seeing the strips laid out like this. It so reminded me of large Lego stacks I used to make for hours playing with the color patterns ;)

To make the blocks, I simply used the strips of squares and pieced them in a log cabin layout around some white squares, alternating the size squares I used in each layer of the block. Once all the blocks were made (an audiobook and a half later) I added some white sashing and then trimmed each block 12 1/2" square ready to be sewn into the quilt top.

I love that using a variety of sized center squares and patchwork squares made each block unique. It adds so much visual variety while still having the structure of a square made of squares which makes my accountant brain happy :) This was one of my favorite finished blocks just because the color graduation ended up being so cool, totally by coincidence of course ;)

And this is my all time favorite block, mostly because it is just lots and lots of super tiny piecing. Each of those squares measure 1/2" finished and there are 4 layers. And you know how I just love tiny piecing. So cute!!!

When it came time to quilt this, I decided to stick with the ideas of tiny squares and quilt a 1/2" square grid across the entire quilt. And I just love it!!! I quilted all of the horizontal lines using the channel locks on the long arm, and then reloaded the quilt the opposite direction and quilted all of the vertical lines. And yes, I got a whole lot of step in to quilt this one :) But I am just so happy with how much it adds to the squared concept of the quilt. Yippee!!!

And of course, with a 1/2" grid, the texture is just amazing!!!! I really does make you See Squared ;) Just so much fun!!!

Oh,and I can't forget to share the back of the quilt!!! I had some leftover strips from all of that tiny square piecing and decided it would be perfect to add a fun little element to the back of the quilt. So, here it is. A little pop of color to keep the back just as fun as the front.

And that is my See Squared quilt!!! I am so glad that I decided to make this up, even if it was at the last minute. It was so much fun to push myself out of my creative comfort zone with these super bold Bella solids and with this bold design. I don't have any expectations for the challenge itself, but I am just so happy I quilted along as I am just thrilled with the finish and how much it pushed me to think and work in a new creative way.

And thank you so much for popping in today and sharing this See Squared finish with me ;) I just love having this amazing place to be able to share my creative quilt journey with each of you!!!

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